Hey guys I have been struggling with a 78 Bus that came in here on
Tuesday.  He has been having a bucking and hesitation problem for his
entire trip across the US but lately it is getting worse and he wanted
me to look at it.  I found one cylinder (number 3) with low compression
(60 psi) and thought I had found the problem.  So we repaired that but
it still does it.  If you go to take off, the bus will start to
accelerate and then start hesitating until you get above a certain rpm
then it feels like a turbo boost and you have your power back and no
hesitation.  Once you get up to speed it drives smoothly with no
hesitation.  Has any one experienced this with a Bus before.  They are a
bit different than a Vanagon so I thought I would seek advice from folks
that have worked more on aircooled vans.  One other thing I am wondering
about is where the ground connection for this engine is supposed to be?
I know in the Vanagon that if you don't have a good ground to the engine
it can cause all kinds of problems.  Where does the air cooled Bus
ground to the motor?  Right now there is a place on the motor with spade
connectors on it and ground connections go there, but there is one that
nothing is on (there are three together).  There is no other ground
cable going to the motor that I can see.  I didn't take one off.  If
anyone can throw me a thought out there it would be appreciated.

For those of you who may have been wondering why you were having a hard
time reaching me this week this is why.  These folks are stuck here
until I figure this out so I have been working on it all day long for
the last several days.  Hopefully I can figure this out tomorrow and get
them back on the road and get my life back as well.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com